Grand Prix: The Past Comes Alive

There aren't that many sports that are as reliant on technical innovation as Formula One. Tennis rackets may have changed through the years and are no longer made of wood, cricket players have much better protection than they ever did and modern swimwear is a controversial subject but these don't rely on the fusion between man and machine in the same way as F1.

Looking back at the footage from the 1950s, when people like Juan Manuel Fangio sat bolt upright in cars that didn't look too far removed from road cars and left the driver completely exposed so that any crash would likely result in severe injury or death, it is almost a completely different world to F1 in the 20th century when the cars are extremely low, sleek and where the driver is virtually hidden. This DVD takes you from the birth of Formula One to the 1980s and '90s with footage from races around Europe organised by the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association where people take these museum pieces and drive them around real race tracks, pushing the cars (and themselves) to the limits.

I had no idea that there even was such a thing as the Historic Grand Prix Cars Association (HGPCA) or that you could go to Silverstone and watch people driving front engined Formula One cars full throttle in a race. Some of the footage is just incredible as you see the drivers fighting with the cars, wrestling them round corners and using steering wheels that are, as the name suggests, round and not the joypad-like devices that today's drivers use to operate their vehicles where they have much more control over the engine, brake balance and downforce than ever before.

As a (increasingly) casual F1 fan and someone who isn't particularly technically minded, I have to admit to being a little lost by some of the extremely well researched and delivered narration which went way over my head on occasion. Most of this is the sort of thing that will be of great interest to people who have followed the sport over the decades and could make a very creditable effort at fixing the car engine.


I suppose this latter point is best illustrated by what happened when I was watching the DVD as my Mum mentioned to my Dad and I was watching "something to do with cars and engines" and he immediately came into my room, sat down and began identifying the various vehicles and commenting on technical specifications as he had some of the older ones as Dinky toys when he was a boy. He is also very technically minded and built his own motor bike when he was in his mid-teens and a car a few years later, something he was encouraged to do by his father, an engineer, who is also a car lover.

Grand Prix: The Past Comes to Life is probably not a DVD for the sort of F1 fan who is quite happy to watch the races but isn't massively interested about the intricacies of the engines and which cars had certain size fuel tanks in a given year. If you know someone (or are someone) who will quite happily read a Haynes manual, have built or have owned a kit car and likes to watch motor racing then this is the perfect DVD for them (or you).


The Disc

Extra Features
There are three features, two of which were shot at Monte Carlo and the third at Donington.

Historics At The Hairpin (18:17) is basically just footage of various different cars going around the famous hairpin at Monaco with a camera following them around so you get a good look at the various different vehicles.

Racing Through Rascasse (18:17) is, like the previous feature, more footage of the same cars except at Rascasse rather than the hairpin. I have to admit that I found these two little tedious and gave up after about five minutes but that is probably more to do with me than the footage itself.

Force F1 - Donington Demonstration (24:00) is almost like a deleted scene from the main feature as it isn't just footage of cars with only the engine noise but has the narration by Stuart Cameron and is a much more interesting and involving featurette. This event was intended to celebrate Donington's return to Formula One but the finances went belly up, it couldn't meet the deadline and Silverstone has the deal to stage the British Grand Prix until 2027.


The Picture
Presented in anamorphic 1.78:1, the image quality is very good with some very sharp images of the vehicles and with only some slight blurring as they speed around corners. The filming and editing is all done extremely well and the use of stock footage to show F1 from the 1950s in order to illustrate how the cars performed then and how little has changed as the same cars fly around the same circuits now (apart from the likes of Snetterton and Aintree).

The Sound
The Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo soundtrack is really all you need for a DVD like this which consists entirely of footage of vintage F1 cars driving around a circuit, interviews and museum footage. Stuart Cameron's narration is extremely clear and well presented and researched, providing you with plenty of detail and information about the various vehicles, the companies and how they changed throughout the years including the introduction of sponsorship.


Final Thoughts
Duke Video tend to aim for a specialist market and Grand Prix: The Past Comes to Life is probably the most hard to classify release of theirs that I've seen. It isn't likely to keep an armchair F1 fan engrossed for the 78 minute running time and will appeal to those who have been following the sport for several decades and know quite a bit about the technical side of the sport and its history. It is a very well directed and edited piece with plenty of interesting footage which makes it perfect viewing for anyone who appreciates the history and technical side of F1.